Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot
All that I love, esteem, and adore.
But though, O flowers, you come unto that land,
And still perchance your colors hold;
So far from this heroic strand,
Whose soil first bade your life unfold,
Still here your fragrance will expand;
Your soul that never quits the earth
Whose light smiled on you at your birth.
From Heidelberg he went to Leipzig, then famous for the new studies
in psychology which were making the science of the mind almost as
exact as that of the body, and became interested in the comparison
of race characteristics as influenced by environment, history and
language. This probably accounts for the advanced views held by Rizal,
who was thoroughly abreast of the new psychology. These ideas were
since popularized in America largely through Professor Hugo Munsterberg
of Harvard University, who was a fellow-student of Rizal at Heidelberg
and also had been at Leipzig.
A little later Rizal went to Berlin and there became acquainted with
a number of men who had studied the Philippines and knew it as none
whom he had ever met previously. Chief among these was Doctor Jagor,
the author of the book which ten years before had inspired in him his
life purpose of preparing his people for the time when America should
come to the Philippines. Then there was Doctor Rudolf Virchow, head of
the Anthropological Society and one of the greatest scientists in the
world. Virchow was of intensely democratic ideals, he was a statesman
as well as a scientist, and the interest of the young student in the
history of his country and in everything else which concerned it,
and his sincere earnestness, so intelligently directed toward helping
his country, made Rizal at once a prime favorite. Under Virchow's
sponsorship he became a member of the Berlin Anthropological Society.
Rizal lived in the third floor of a corner lodging house not very
far from the University; in this room he spent much of his time,
putting the finishing touches to what he had previously written of
his novel, and there he wrote the latter half of "Noli Me Tangere"
The German influence, and absence from the Philippines for so long a
time, had modified his early radical views, and the book had now become
less an effort to arouse the Spanish sense of justice than a means of
education for Filipinos by pointing out their shortcomings. Perhaps a
Spanish school history which he had read in Madrid deserves a part of
the credit for this changed point of view, since in that the author,
treating of Spain's early misfortunes, brings out the fact that
misgovernment may be due quite as much to the hypocrisy, servility
and undeserving character of the people as it is to the corruption,
tyranny and cruelty of the rulers.
The printer of "Noli Me Tangere" lived in a neighboring street, and,
like most printers in Germany, worked for a very moderate compensation,
so that the volume of over four hundred pages cost less than a fourth
of what it would have done in England, or one half of what it would
cost in economical Spain. Yet even at so modest a price, Rizal was
delayed in the publication until one fortunate morning he received a
visit from a countryman, Doctor Maximo Viola, who invited him to take a
pedestrian trip. Rizal responded that his interests kept him in Berlin
at that time as he was awaiting funds from home with which to publish
a book he had just completed, and showed him the manuscript. Doctor
Viola was much interested and offered to use the money he had put
aside for the trip to help pay the publisher. So the work went ahead,
and when the delayed remittance from his family arrived, Rizal repaid
the obligation. Then the two sallied forth on their trip.
After a considerable tour of the historic spots and scenic places
in Germany, they arrived at Dresden, where Doctor Rizal was warmly
greeted by Doctor A. B. Meyer, the Director of the Royal Saxony
Ethnographical Institute. He was an authority upon Philippine matters,
for some years before he had visited the Islands to make a study of
the people. With a countryman resident in the Philippines, Doctor
Meyer made careful and thorough scientific investigations, and his
conclusions were more favorable to the Filipinos than the published
views of many of the unscientific Spanish observers.
In the Museum of Art at Dresden, Rizal saw a painting of "Prometheus
Bound," which recalled to him a representation of the same idea
in a French gallery, and from memory he modeled this figure, which
especially appealed to him as being typical of his country.
In Austrian territory he first visited Doctor Ferdinand Blumentritt,
whom Rizal had known by reputation for many years and with whom he had
long corresponded. The two friends stayed at the Hotel Roderkrebs,
but were guests at the table of the Austrian professor, whose wife
gave them appetizing demonstrations of the characteristic cookery
of Hungary. During Rizal's stay he was very much interested in a
gathering of tourists, arranged to make known the beauties of that
picturesque region, sometimes called the Austrian Switzerland, and
he delivered an address upon this occasion. It is noteworthy that
the present interest in attracting tourists to the Philippines, as
an economic benefit to the country, was anticipated by Doctor Rizal
and that he was always looking up methods used in foreign countries
for building up tourists' travel.
One day, while the visitors were discussing Philippine matters with
their host, Doctor Rizal made an off hand sketch of Doctor Blumentritt,
on a scrap of paper which happened to be at hand, so characteristic
that it serves as an excellent portrait, and it has been preserved
among the Rizal relics which Doctor Blumentritt had treasured of the
friend for whom he had so much respect and affection.
With a letter of introduction to a friend of Doctor Blumentritt in
Vienna, Nordenfels, the greatest of Austrian novelists, Doctor Viola
and Doctor Rizal went on to the capital, where they were entertained
by the Concordia Club. So favorable was the impression that Rizal
made upon Mr. Nordenfels that an answer was written to the note of
introduction, thanking the professor for having brought to his notice
a person whom he had found so companionable and whose genius he so
much admired. Nordenfels had been interested in Spanish subjects,
and was able to discuss intelligently the peculiar development of
Castilian civilization and the politics of the Spanish metropolis as
they affected the overseas possessions.
After having seen Rome and a little more of Italy, they embarked for
the Philippines, again on the French mail, from Marseilles, coming
by way of Saigon, where a rice steamer was taken for Manila.
CHAPTER VII
The Period of Propaganda
The city had not altered much during Rizal's seven years of
absence. The condition of the Binondo pavement, with the same holes
in the road which Rizal claimed he remembered as a schoolboy, was
unchanged, and this recalls the experience of Ybarra in "Noli Me
Tangere" on his homecoming after a like period of absence.
Doctor Rizal at once went to his home in Kalamba. His first operation
in the Philippines relieved the blindness of his mother, by the removal
of a double cataract, and thus the object of his special study in
Paris was accomplished. This and other like successes gave the young
oculist a fame which brought patients from all parts of Luzon; and,
though his charges were moderate, during his seven months' stay
in the Islands Doctor Rizal accumulated over five thousand pesos,
besides a number of diamonds which he had bought as a secure way of
carrying funds, mindful of the help that the ring had been with which
he had first started from the Philippines.
Shortly after his arrival, Governor-General Terrero summoned Rizal by
telegraph to Malacanan from Kalamba. The interview proved to be due
to the interest in the author of "Noli Me Tangere" and a curiosity
to read the novel, arising from the copious extracts with which the
Manila censors had submitted an unfavorable opinion when asking for
the prohibition of the book. The recommendation of the censor was
disregarded, and General Terrero, fearful that Rizal might be molested
by some of the many persons who would feel themselves aggrieved by his
plain picturing of undesirable classes in the Philippines, gave him for
a bodyguard a young Spanish lieutenant, Jose Taviel de Andrade. The
young men soon became fast friends, as they had artistic and other
tastes in common. Once they climbed Mr. Makiling, near Kalamba,
and placed there, after the European custom, a flag to show that
they had reached the summit. This act was at first misrepresented by
the enemies of Rizal as planting a German banner, for they started
a story that he had taken possession of the Islands in the name of
the country where he was educated, which was just then in unfriendly
relations with Spain over the question of the ill treatment of the
Protestant missionaries in the Caroline Islands. This same story was
repeated after the American occupation with the variation that Rizal,
as the supreme chief and originator of the ideas of the Katipunan
(which in fact he was not--he was even opposed to the society as it
existed in his time), had placed there a Filipino banner, in token
that the Islands intended to reassume the independent condition of
which the Spanish had dispossessed them.
"Noli Me Tangere" circulated first among Doctor Rizal's relatives;
on one occasion a cousin made a special trip to Kalamba and took
the author to task for having caricatured her in the character of
Dona Victorina. Rizal made no denial, but merely suggested that the
book was a mirror of Philippine life, with types that unquestionably
existed in the country, and that if anybody recognized one of the
characters as picturing himself or herself, that person would do well
to correct the faults which therein appeared ridiculous.
A somewhat liberal administration was now governing the Philippines,
and efforts were being made to correct the more glaring abuses in
the social conditions. One of these reforms proposed that the larger
estates should bear their share of the taxes, which it was believed
they were then escaping to a great extent. Requests were made of the
municipal government of Kalamba, among other towns, for a statement
of the relation that the big Dominican hacienda bore to the town,
what increase or decrease there might have been in the income of the
estate, and what taxes the proprietors were paying compared with the
revenue their place afforded.
Rizal interested the people of the community to gather reliable
statistics, to go thoroughly into the actual conditions, and to leave
out the generalities which usually characterized Spanish documents.
He asked the people to cooeperate, pointing out that when they
did not complain it was their own fault more than that of the
government if they suffered injustice. Further, he showed the folly
of exaggerated statements, and insisted upon a definite and moderate
showing of such abuses as were unquestionably within the power of
the authorities to relieve. Rizal himself prepared the report, which
is an excellent presentation of the grievances of the people of his
town. It brings forward as special points in favor of the community
their industriousness, their willingness to help themselves, their
interest in education, and concludes with expressing confidence
in the fairness of the government, pointing out the fact that they
were risking the displeasure of their landlords by furnishing the
information requested. The paper made a big stir, and its essential
statements, like everything else in Rizal's writings, were never
successfully challenged.
Conditions in Manila were at that time disturbed owing to the